kentar

What would solve that? I'm no more than 12" away from the wall.

Thanks. I've watched a few of his vids. He tends to thin by 10%, which is generally what paint manufacturers suggest. None of his vids describe my situation. How much do you thin by percentage wise?

I thought i'd resurrect this rather than making my own thread... I bought a Wagner PP90 and I mist coated 1 room from bare plaster. I used the included 517 HEA tip and set the pressure the middle of the HEA 'zone' on the gauge. I used Dulux matt retail paint and thinned by around 20%. Having never used an airless sprayer before, I was expecting an extremely smooth surface. What I in fact got was something that had orange peel and a surface that felt like sandpaper. A few air bubbles in places, but that's likely due to it going on heavy. Wagner told me that the sprayer is fine and the problem is likely the walls or the paint. Is anyone able to shed any light on if this is normal and if it can be improved?

I stated in the first sentence that it's solid brick. I have no idea why some of you are talking about a cavity.

My property is semi detached, early 1900's, solid brick, with bay windows. The exterior is pebbledashed above the dpc. There is a bit that is bare brick (for show I guess) below the ground floor windows at the front of the house which extends all the way across the front of the house. I'm considering EWI through the ECO scheme. I've a company that can install it. I'm just trying to do some homework beforehand and wondered what the general consensus was? I know it can be extremely beneficial, but how does it fare long term? Is it the right decision? What questions should I be asking? Am I doing the right thing by fitting it to an old property? Will I ruin the look of the property? Do I need to bring the windows out? Can I maintain the look the the timber above the first floor bay window? Another thing that worries me is that the house will be out of keeping with the rest of the houses on the road. None of them have EWI. I believe they're all pebbledashed (I will check this). They're all slightly different in architectural style as well, so the only property that matches the look of mine is the one that i'm attached to. Perhaps that's a good thing?

Pic from google. Technically it's SSE, but good enough. There will be no issues with shading.

I want to install around 20 solar panels on top of a pergola. The pergola needs to be constructed first, but i'm not sure on where I stand with planning permission and permitted development. An example of the kind of thing I want. A few words on the scenario: I live on a hill, with a main road going in front of my house, and a side road that branches off to the rear of my house. My garden has a slope, roughly 600mm from the top end to the bottom end. My garage is half sunk into the ground, with a driveway that's sloped down to meet with the road behind. The height difference between my patio and the level of the road that runs behind my house is at a minimum 2m. The neighbour to the left is not attached to my property, but has a garage next to mine. A picture explains a thousand words: Firstly, permitted development allows for buildings to be erected with a max height of 2.4m. I believe that this level is taken from the highest point of the surrounding land. As the highest point is the patio, would that mean I can carry this height down the length of the garden? Secondly, would this structure be classed as a lean to? It will be attached to the house, although not in the traditional sense, and it won't be enclosed. If it's classed as a lean to, the allowance is a max eaves height of 3m if within 2m of a boundary. There is a 200mm height difference between the alley and the patio, which is why i've labelled it as 3.2m.

I'm going to throw a spanner in the works... say I went with a gas system boiler and new rads with the idea of moving to ASHP at a later date. What accommodations would I have to make now to allow for this?

The boiler is 20 years old. The boiler design however would be older as they stopped manufacturing it in 2003.

That's an interesting take. Are you able to compare the efficiency of your oil fired system to a non-condensing boiler? If it doesn't cost any more to run than my current boiler, it would be something i'd be keen to look into.

1. What's the basis of your objection to UFH? 2. See my comment above. 3. Would you be able to elaborate of wall mounted fan coils? Isn't that air conditioning? What would be the difference in running cost between a conventional CH system vs A2A aircon?

I have a basic understanding of what's involved in retrofitting UFH. I have wooden floors donwstairs which are to be ripped out at some point. If I was doing it now I would opt for UFH from the start. But let's say I wanted to do change from radiators to UFH, what exactly is involved? And what design considerations should I make now to ensure a smoother transition? Is it as simple as unplugging a rad and plugging in the pipe for the UFH?

Understandable, but i've got fan heaters as backup and the immersion heater is taking care of the hot water. I'm pulling the trigger by the end of the month, which I think is ample time to decide on a plan.

My house is a 4 bed semi, early 1900's and is solid brick construction. Can't say how old the plumbing system is, but safe to assume pre 80's. An ASHP will be replacing the now defunct gas boiler and an unvented 200/250l hot water cylinder will also go in, but i'm unsure of what to do about the heating system. The current system uses a non-condensing boiler with a vented hot water cylinder. It lacks hot water pressure. The shower is fed using a pump to combat this but it runs the 140l tank dry within 10 mins. Half of the rads need replacing as they're extremely old. One rad is definitely full of sludge and barely gets warm even after a flush. The only saving grace is that all pipes to rads are 15mm. I've heard people claim that underfloor heating is best with ASHP, but also that it's difficult to retrofit to older properties. 1. Should I go for underfloor heating or radiators? 2. Can radiators be changed easily to underfloor heating at a later date, or does it need to be designed for it from the off? 3. Is there a third (or fourth) option? 4. Any other considerations?

That's an informative post, thanks.

Assuming all things being equal - size and configuration of tank, flow temp etc. (why would flow temp be different?) If i'm replacing a 20kw boiler, it would be fair to assume a 20kw ashp would heat the tank in a similar amount of time. However I only see people fitting ashp's with ratings in single digits. I've read that an oversized heat pump won't be as efficient due to it not being able to modulate down far enough and instead having to cycle on and off. The question is, why? They all run on inverters, in theory they should be able to go to near zero. Meanwhile a mid range Viessmann gas boiler will go down to 3kw, and the top end boiler will go down to 1.3kw. Yes, I will be upgrading the tank from 140l to 250l. However, were it to run out due to say several consecutive showers being required, I'd prefer that it was able to heat up as quickly as a gas boiler could. I know this can be mitigated somewhat by fitting a tank with a longer coil, but the same logic could be applied to a gas boiler. The central heating side isn't a concern for me. I know I can leave this on 24/7 and let weather comp do its thing. I'm neither for nor against ASHP's, i'm just trying to find a positive argument for installing one over a gas boiler. I know there may be some adjustment to be made, but if it causes more issues than it solves, then what actual reason is there for switching from a gas boiler? If it causes no extra hassle then i'm for it. And if it saves me money over installing a modern boiler that can modulate from 30kw-3kw then that's even better.

My requirement is that 4 people should be able to shower consecutively. My current hot water cylinder does not alllow for this and will be upsized. I can't however, fit a 500l cylinder. So I have make a reasoned decision and live with any shortcomings. Now my question is how long will a ASHP take to reheat a cylinder compared to a gas boiler? My opinion is that the gas boiler will do it quicker, based on the opinion of someone I know having one, and subsequently replacing it with a gas boiler due to it not heating water quickly enough. As I stated, I do not know the ins and outs of his installation. This is why I'm here, to gather further information from people who may be able to help me make an informed choice.

60c I believe. I'm not sure what the blend ratio of hot to cold is. I've got the mixer knob set so the temp I like is in the middle. The fact is, I can empty a 140l tank quite easily. It's pointless questioning or criticising how much water I use. I'm going to use it regardless.

A survey will be carried out to determine that, but none of what you have written concerns me.

Yes to a point, but you can't account for every eventuality. Fitting a 1000l tank in my airing cupboard 'just in case' is not viable. My current tank is 140l. I can drain that in less than 10 mins. Assuming 4 people need a shower, that's 560l. A tank that size is just not going to fit.

My boiler has died and I'm able to get a new ASHP installed via government grant. I have few concerns and i'd like some advice. My property is early 1900's solid wall construction. The loft has been insulated up to standard 10 years ago. New UPVC double glazing was fitted less than 5 years ago. The heating system is a mixture of new, old and really old. All pipe runs to the rads are 15mm, likely branching off a 22mm main (unverified). Firstly, everyone's telling me not to. Only one person I know has had one. I don't have any details about his system or installation, but he moved into a new house which had one and found it to be unsuitable because it was taking too long to heat the water after the DHW cylinder had emptied and meant having more than one consecutive shower was not possible. It was therefore replaced with a gas boiler. A couple of other concerns of mine are placement and noise. I'd prefer to mount mine high up on the wall against my house, as close as possible to the hot water cylinder on the first floor. This will be around 2m from my neighbours house. Is this possible? How noisy will it be? If it's not doable, can I have it placed at the end of the garden, around 20m away from the existing boiler? The boiler currently resides in the kitchen, with the hot water cylinder directly above it. Thirdly, heatgeek accredited installations are supposedly regarded as the best. How much of a risk is it using someone not accredited? Are there any other considerations? I'm not interested in saving a few hundred quid a year if it means that an ASHP causes more issues than it solves.

I'd like to install a garden room/workshop, roughly 4mx6m with a bifold door on the short side. I don't think I need any windows. Not sure what kind of roof style to go with just yet. I don't want to spend the next 6 months building it, so I was considering a pre fab and knocking it out within a couple of weeks. The trouble is I can't find what I want for what I deem is a reasonable price to performance. Everything I look at seems to be made of 3x2's, whereas I'd want 4x2's at a minimum. I've thought about buying a shed and then insulating it internally. Here's an example of something I was considering: https://www.nordictimberbuildings.com/product/20-x-10-pent-garden-summerhouse-with-bifold-doors/ £7400 is a ridiculous price considering something just slightly bigger, without aluminium windows and a bifold door is £3.5k. That's almost a £4k difference. I don't get it. https://www.nordictimberbuildings.com/product/20-x-12-apex-garden-shed-workshop/ I reckon I could build the first option myself with insulation and using 4x2's for £3k. Of course you can build it yourself for less you say... I don't mind paying a fair price, but I feel like i'm being robbed with what's on offer. As I said, I don't want to devote a great deal of time to building it myself. Which leaves me with having to buy one pre made, or having someone build one for me. I asked a chippie for a ballpark price and he came back with a figure of £10k. Again, I feel that's taking the piss. I've seen a lot of professional builds on youtube, and they don't take more than a couple of weeks - were talking fancy looking buildings here. I just want a notch above a basic shed. So then I looked at SIPs. I can't find the correct size on the website, but something half the size of what I want is around £3k. So roughly £6k for the shell and a couple of grand to finish it off. That would give me something substantially better than the first option, and I wouldn't have to faff about with spending more time insulating and boarding it. https://www.simplysips.co.uk/product/4-2m-x-3m-sips-kit/ £8k is more than I'd like to spend so I'm interested to hear your thoughts on this. What's my best option? Is there anything I haven't considered?